Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physiotherapists with regard to epilepsy and patients with epilepsy: A systematic scoping review

Abstract

Background In today’s healthcare systems, physiotherapists are one of the most important providers of care services to patients with disabilities including those with epilepsy. The aims of this systematic scoping review were to identify, summarize, and present narrative synthesis of qualitative evidence on knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physiotherapists toward epilepsy and patients with epilepsy. Methods Primary studies were searched in Medline/PubMed, Embase, Science Direct, SpringerLink, CInAHL/EBSCO, Cochrane library, and Scopus as late as July 02, 2021. Appraisal of the methodological quality was conducted for the studies included in this systematic scoping review. Due to the heterogenous nature of the collected data, results of this study are presented as narrative synthesis. Results A total of 11 were finally included in the qualitative synthesis. The selected studies were published in the period between 2016 and 2020. The studies included in this review had acceptable methodological quality in many of the 11 domains of the quality assessment tool. Contents of the included studies were grouped into the 11 themes and 8 subthemes. The major themes were related education/access to information, interaction with patients, witnessing seizures, barriers and promoters of adequate knowledge and attitudes, and interventions to improve knowledge and attitudes. Conclusion Currently, high-quality interventional studies are needed to improve knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physiotherapists with regard to epilepsy and patients with epilepsy. Future studies are still needed to investigate if improving knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physiotherapists with regard to epilepsy and patients with epilepsy can improve health-related outcomes of the patients. Keywords Knowledge Attitude Practice Physiotherapists Epilepsy Seizures